CS50 Changelog

Linking to Chapters

2020-08-13T13:37:00.001Z

So that teachers (and we!) can link to specific chapters within CS50’s videos, the links in the Chapters menu now include not only start parameters but also end parameters as well. That way, if you control- or right-click on a chapter and copy its URL, you can link to just a single chapter; the player will start playing the video at start and will automatically pause it at end. Consider, for instance, this link to a chapter on Pseudocode, which starts at 1700 seconds and ends at 1878 seconds!

https://video.cs50.io/jjqgP9dpD1k?screen=w3XNssqYBSU&start=1700&end=1878

You can also use the form on the player’s landing page at https://video.cs50.io/ to create URLs manually!

Snacks for Lectures

2020-06-20T12:24:00.001Z

A tradition in CS50 is to serve cake (or cupcakes) after the course’s first lecture. And that tradition has since evolved into snacks in the middle of every lecture. Of course, those snacks don’t readily translate to video, and such comments as these online have not been uncommon:

But no longer! Happy to say that the CS50 Video Player now includes a menu of snacks, complete with cake and healthier options alike!

Eat your vegetables!

UI Improvements for CS50 Video Player

2020-06-03T00:00:00.001Z

CS50’s video player, a web app at video.cs50.io that synchronizes instructional videos with screen recordings, is now all the more responsive, particularly when embedded in a course’s website:

The “Keyboard” in “Keyboard Shortcuts” has been replaced with an icon to free up horizontal space.
A pop-out icon has been added (when the player is embedded) so that students can pop the player out into the full window.
“CS50 Video Player” is shortened to “CS50” on the smallest of screens.

Screenshots below!

In terms of other features and bug fixes:

The Escape key will now close the Captions drop-down.
A bug was fixed whereby clicking Screen when a video is paused would result in a spinning icon.
A bug was fixed whereby, if a student seeked in a video while Screen was enabled, the main video wouldn’t stay synchronized.

Large

Medium

Small

Docs for CS50's Dining API Have Moved

2020-06-02T02:00:00.001Z

Documentation for CS50’s Dining API, which provides Harvard students with programmatic access via HTTP to data from Harvard University Dining Services, has been integrated to cs50.readthedocs.io, where CS50’s other documentation lives.

While the documentation no longer includes Try It buttons (which seemed unnecessary for a GET-only API), it does still include tabbed code examples for Python and cURL. And it’s (hopefully!) a bit easier to read.

See cs50.readthedocs.io/api/dining for its new home. Screenshot below!

Theme for CS50's Docs Updated

2020-06-02T00:00:00.001Z

The theme for CS50’s documentation at cs50.readthedocs.io has been updated to the latest version of sphinx_rtd_theme. The UI is largely the same, though we’ve tweaked a few aesthetics. Most compelling, though, the latest version of the theme has simplified the documentation’s conf.py and obviated the need for most of the site’s custom CSS.

We’ve also enabled an Edit on GitHub link atop each page to make it easier for folks to open a pull request to propose corrections or improvements to the documentation.

Screenshot below!